Outdoors

Hard days of Fort Foster not quite forgotten

By Terry Tomalin, Outdoors Editor
Published February 22, 2008

GaHa Halftown, left, from Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Orlando's Patrick Johnson took part in the recent reenactment of Second Seminole War battles at Fort Foster. Photos: Ft. Foster history reenactment
	[Chris Zuppa | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Chris Zuppa | Times] Tarpon Springs' Matthew Milnes, portraying a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army's 2nd Artillery, readies for a skirmish. Reenactor Bruce Wallsten of Crystal River sports a fashion from the day - a fox skin cap. [Chris Zuppa | Times]

THONOTOSASSA - If you paddle the Hillsborough River, just upriver of the state park, you'll pass a small wooden bridge that is only used by hikers. But unknown to most, this quiet spot in the woods once played a pivotal role in the Second Seminole War.

In March 1836, federal troops built a similar wooden bridge to carry supplies along the Fort King Military Road, which once linked Tampa with present-day Ocala. Fights soon broke out between the soldiers and the Seminoles, who recognized the strategic importance. The Indians would try to burn the bridge and the troops would rebuild it.

The soldiers also fought mosquitoes and yellow fever. After two years of intermittent battles, the army abandoned what had become known as Fort Foster, declaring the site on the edge of the swamp, "unhealthy."

In 1973, the land where the fort once stood was donated to the Florida State Park Service by a local rancher. Park workers reconstructed the fort down to the minutest detail.

Every year, history buffs gather outside the old wooden structure to reconstruct what life was like here before the Territory of Florida became the 27th state.

For more information on living history in state parks, go to www.floridastateparks.org.

[Last modified February 21, 2008, 19:48:35]